Change Enablement Lead

Job description

About Us South Jersey Industries (SJI) is an energy holding company that delivers clean energy services to 700,000+ customers and businesses throughout 14 counties in New Jersey. As part of our core values, SJI is dedicated to being a community partner and developing innovative clean energy solutions to meet the needs of the future. To do this, we depend on our workforce of over 1,100+ talented, diverse employees who help us deliver safe, reliable, affordable clean energy for a better today and tomorrow. At SJI, we believe that our employees are our most valuable asset. Whether you’re a seasoned operations technician or an early-career legal professional, our culture, inclusive workforce, and leadership development and training programs will provide you with the tools you need to either kickstart your career or bring it to new heights. Position Summary The Enterprise Change Enablement Lead is accountable for building and operating SJI’s Change Enablement Center of Excellence (CoE) and for leading change execution across transformation, strategic delivery, and IT-led initiatives. The role carries a dual mandate: establishing enterprise change methodology, standards, metrics, and practitioner capacity while directly driving change strategy, readiness, adoption, and sustainment so transformation value sticks in the business. This individual ensures the human side of change is systematically addressed, partners closely with Strategic Program Delivery, IT, HR, Communications, and business sponsors to align change activity with program milestones and workforce capacity, and manages internal and contracted change resources. The role is accountable for change enablement quality, adoption measurement, change heatmap insights, and scalable change capability across SJI. *Please note this role will require flexibility reporting to our office locations, in particular in Union, NJ, Mt.Laurel, NJ and Folsom, NJ* Essential Functions: Design and lead change enablement services across the enterprise transformation portfolio, including workforce transformation and IT-led initiatives; develop comprehensive change strategies grounded in adoption, readiness, engagement, sustainment, program milestones, and organizational capacity. Lead organizational readiness assessments, stakeholder analysis, change impact assessments, adoption planning, and transformation roadmaps that are scalable and repeatable across the enterprise program portfolio. Partner with executives, sponsors, business leaders, project teams, and impacted stakeholders to build alignment and ownership. Establish key change milestones and integrated delivery timelines; partner with program and project managers to align dependencies, training, communications, stakeholder engagement, and go-live readiness across each program or project. Develop and maintain change enablement frameworks, playbooks, templates, training plans, communications strategies, and tools that support workforce transformation activities and can be deployed consistently across the program portfolio. Accountable for the execution of change enablement workstreams and tasks within a matrixed environment spanning the CoE, the workforce transformation program, and the IT project portfolio. Coordinate and influence a diverse team of employees and vendors, delegating work, ensuring quality standards, and balancing workloads. Lead development and maintenance of a comprehensive workforce training and capability-building plan; coordinate delivery for internal and external audiences, assess training needs tied to workforce transformation milestones, and support the design and execution of learning programs that accelerate role readiness and adoption. Accountable for a coordinated communications and stakeholder engagement plan spanning internal and external audiences, ensuring consistent, timely, and transparent messaging throughout the workforce transformation lifecycle. Coach leaders and people managers to serve as active, visible sponsors of workforce transformation, equipping them with tools and messaging to guide their teams through significant role, process, and technology changes. Partner across business lines and program teams to deliver integrated workforce transformation experiences that are coherent, consistent, and aligned to the overall program strategy. Assess and monitor organizational change load across the workforce transformation program portfolio; develop and maintain a change heatmap to identify capacity constraints, sequencing conflicts, and high-saturation groups requiring targeted enablement support. Develop and execute a resistance management strategy; proactively identify and address barriers to adoption across impacted workforce segments, and partner with program leadership and HR to resolve resistance through targeted interventions. Manage resolution of potential organizational obstacles, guides others in mitigation planning. Define and track adoption and enablement metrics; measure change effectiveness, workforce readiness, utilization, and post-go-live sustainment to inform continuous improvement and support program reporting requirements. Translate change health, adoption, and readiness insights into actionable recommendations for governance forums, stage gates, launch decisions, and sustainment planning. Own and govern the enterprise change enablement methodology, standards, and toolkit; establish the CoE as the authoritative source for how change is planned, executed, and measured across SJI programs and projects. Develop and continuously mature a CoE service catalog that defines the scope, deliverables, and engagement model for change enablement services available to program sponsors and business leaders. Allocate and manage contracted change management resources across the enterprise portfolio; assess demand, match CM practitioner capacity to program and project needs, and oversee the quality and consistency of contracted CM delivery. Build organizational change capability across the enterprise by delivering practitioner coaching, sponsor education, and change leadership development programs—reducing dependency on external resources over time. Develop and manage a change network and sponsor enablement model that equips leaders, managers, and local change agents to support sustained adoption. Maintain a CoE knowledge management repository of change plans, lessons learned, reusable templates, and adoption benchmarks that can be leveraged across current and future programs. Report on CoE performance, portfolio-wide change health, adoption metrics, change saturation, and resource utilization to Strategic Program Delivery leadership and executive sponsors; provide input into resourcing decisions and annual planning for contracted change management support. Serve as the dedicated change management resource—or direct the assignment of contracted CM resources—for IT-led projects; partner with IT and business stakeholders from initiation through post-go-live to ensure end users are prepared, engaged, and able to adopt new systems, tools, and processes. Conduct project-level change impact assessments and stakeholder analyses; develop and execute tailored change plans, communications, and training strategies scoped to each project’s affected user population and timeline. Integrate IT project change activities into the enterprise change heatmap to monitor aggregate change load, identify conflicts with concurrent transformation workstreams, and ensure sequencing supports workforce capacity. Apply consistent CoE standards, templates, and methodologies across IT projects, building organizational change capability and creating reusable assets that reduce ramp-up time on future technology deployments. Required Skills: Strong understanding of how individuals and organizations navigate change; direct experience supporting large-scale workforce transformation, operational restructuring, strategic delivery portfolios, or IT-led technology implementations is strongly preferred; prior experience building or operating a change enablement Center of Excellence or shared services function is a significant plus. Experience with and knowledge of Prosci ADKAR, change enablement methodologies, agile transformation approaches, and organizational readiness practices and tools. Experience leading or contributing to a Center of Excellence, shared services, or enterprise practice function; demonstrated ability to design service models, govern standards, and manage practitioner resources across a portfolio. Proven ability to translate change management practices into portfolio-level tools, including change heatmaps, adoption dashboards, readiness scorecards, and sustainment metrics. Demonstrated experience delivering change management on IT-led projects (e.g., ERP, HRIS, CRM, infrastructure, or digital transformation implementations); familiarity with IT project lifecycle methodologies such as Agile, waterfall, or hybrid delivery frameworks. Experience sourcing, directing, and managing contracted or vendor-provided change management resources; ability to assess capacity needs, align practitioners to project demand, and maintain quality and consistency of contracted CM delivery. Exceptional executive communication skills, both written and verbal. Excellent active listening skills. Ability to clearly articulate messages to a variety of audiences. Ability to establish and maintain strong relationships. Ability to influence without authority and build trusted partnerships across all levels of the organization. Flexible and adaptable; able to work in ambiguous situations. Resilient and tenacious with a propensity to persevere. Forward looking with a holistic approach. Organized with a natural inclination for planning strategy and tactics. Problem solving and root-cause identification skills. Able to work effectively at all levels of an organization. Must be a team player and able to work collaboratively with and through others. Ability to make decisions at the project team level and properly escalate those decisions that cannot be resolved on a timely basis. Preferred Skills: Relevant certifications such as Prosci, CCMP, ACMP, PMP, SHRM-CP/SCP, or HCI Change Management Practitioner are a plus. Qualifications Required Background: Bachelor's degree with 8 years of relevant experience in workforce transformation, change enablement, organizational development, or management consulting; or Master's degree with 6 years of relevant experience. Equivalent work experience may be considered in lieu of degree. Explore the Possibilities South Jersey Industries employs a diverse range of talent – from construction contractors to environmental specialists. Regardless of the position, mentoring and networking, hands-on experience, gaining industry knowledge and the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on our business and in our communities are all exciting ways that we welcome our employees at SJI. And as a company committed to creating an engaging culture built on inclusion and diversity, you’re sure to find an opportunity that makes you feel included, empowered, and ready to “bring your whole self to work” every day. Benefits Package Overview SJI offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees. The SJI “Total Rewards” Benefits Package include: Flexible vacation, Paid Time Off, and Sick Leave package Comprehensive Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance Short-term and Long-term Disability Insurance 401(k), with generous company match Employee Resource Groups to encourage employee engagement, nurture professional development, and foster an inclusive environment. Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer At this time, SJI is only considering applicants authorized to work in the United States currently and in the future without the need for visa sponsorship. Compensation Range: $139,125 - 222,600 We are committed to pay transparency and ensuring equitability compensation for all employees. The pay range for this position reflects the base salary only and does not include benefits, bonuses, or other forms of compensation that might be part of the total compensation package. The specific salary offered will be based on a candidate’s qualifications, education, and experience.